Judge Burton Lifland has, until now, protected the identities of current and former bank employees whose names are mentioned in lawsuits filed by Madoff trustee Irving Picard.  That's about to change, over requests by defendants Citigroup, JPMorgan and UBS to keep secret the names mentioned in their lawsuits in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.  Mr. Picard, who's handling the liquidation of Bernie Madoff & Co., has sued the 3 banking giants in order to recover alleged improper profits tied to the imprisoned Ponzi schemer.

The employees' names were mentioned in lawsuits filed by Irving Picard, but were redacted from publicly distributed versions records of the cases.  The banks had said that disclosure was unnecessary and feared the employees might be stigmatized or suggest misconduct. Responding to requests from the news media - including the NYTimes, NBC News, CNBC, WNBC-TV - the judge has now ordered that the names be revealed. 

In his opinion, the judge wrote:  "The public has a qualified First Amendment right to access certain judicial documents," and the federal bankruptcy code "creates a strong presumption that court records in bankruptcy proceedings are accessible to the public."  ...  "The defendants have not adequately established any harm beyond merely embarrassing or prejudicial association with these Ponzi scheme proceedings."

Judge Lifland did allow JPMorgan to keep under seal information concerning its KYC and AML procedures.

The case is:   In re: Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 08-01789.   [CNBC.com, 4/13]